Are the first commercial Tizen smartphones nearly here? Well, maybe, if we’re to believe the latest rumors. Sure, they’ve missed the mark in the past, and all those anticipated 2013 launches failed to actually occur, but now we’ve got our sights on MWC 2014, and are optimistic that these handsets are finally about to see the light of day. Even once they’re official, though, there’s still the question of just where they’ll be sold. We’ve already heard that the US is out of the running, and today get word that a major Japanese carrier is scrapping its own plans for being involved with the Tizen launch.

But now NTT DoCoMo is putting plans to introduce the phone on indefinite hold, citing “changes in the mobile environment.” Specifically, a rise in iPhone popularity in Japan may be causing the carrier to have second thoughts about how popular a wholly unknown platform really has chance at being.

Sure, even if the US and Japan are out of the picture, there are plenty of other markets where Samsung could still sell Tizen devices, and it could well find success doing so, but we have to admit that none of these developments are particularly lending themselves to creating an air of confidence around Tizen’s potential.